New World Diseases - Bubas

Bubas, which meant boils, was also used to describe syphilis. According to the
book "Born to Die - Disease and New World Conquest" by Noble David Cook,
syphilis was widespread in the Americas, several who returned to the Iberian
Peninsula in 1493 were infected with it, and eventually the disease spread all
over Europe. There is a lot of speculation as to the origins of syphilis - I've
read fairly recent articles that it came from Italy.

The book says the unintended revenge of the Spanish was to give the Indians
smallpox. The sixteenth century historian, Lopez de Gomara, said Mexico City was
hit so bad by smallpox that they had to pull the houses down to cover the
corpses. The following quote by him summarizing the attitude of his compatriots
is pretty cruel: "It seems to me that is the way they were repaid for the bubas
which they gave our men." Bubas must have been pretty horrible for Lopez de
Gomara to make such a callous statement.

Have any researchers out there encountered syphilis as a cause of death while
reviewing records? Is it a fatal disease? It must have been widespread in
Mexico.